She could hear the blood pulsing through her ears and she was tempted just to close hers eyes and pray she would never wake up again. But Zuri thought of Ava. She thought of the other young girls. This would be the end of their lives. She imagined Ava being sold off to some old man. Her precious life thrown away. She would never go to college, never use that beautiful brain of hers.
Zuri opened her eyes wide. There was a very light thudding that Zuri could feel and hear from her position on the floor. They were near the crane. They had to be.
There would be the regular port officials walking by, overseeing work, and if the crane was active there would be other workers around too. Someone would have to hear them if only Zuri could get their attention.
With great effort she pushed herself up. She looked around at the group. If she could get even half of them to make noise maybe, just maybe, someone would hear them.
“Hey,” she spoke into the container. “We need to make noise. We need to get ourselves heard.” She crawled to a group against the far wall. She shook girls, and women. She started lifting their fists and pounded them against the metal wall. She moved from woman to woman doing the same thing. Some were so drugged they didn’t even wake up when Zuri shook them. But she didn’t stop. She continued until there was a soft thudding of fists on the wall.
Zuri gathered all her strength. She pushed herself to her feet and pounded heavily on the walls. A thick drum sound began and a few of the women seemed to stir to life.
“Help,” Zuri yelled at the top of her lungs. “Help us. Fire, there’s a fire…” she yelled the words. Many years ago she’d heard that if she was being attacked to yell fire. She was told that people responded to a cry of fire when they wouldn’t necessarily step in to call the police for a cry of help.
“Fire,” she shrieked. She slammed her fists into the walls and began stomping her feet. “Fire, help…” She continued her cry, pounding her fists until she felt her skin grow raw and break under the pressure. She pummeled the walls and floor, pushed her body to move faster to hit harder. She screamed the words over and over again, not stopping to listen for signs of the outside.
There was a clanging on the outside of the container. Zuri didn’t stop. She imagined the Ukrainians coming in and shutting her up. She threw herself at the walls. Screamed even louder.
A light swam through the opening and finally Zuri turned. She looked at the opening and saw a uniformed man there.
“Dear god,” the man said as he looked around at the container full of women and girls.
“Help us,” Zuri said, “please help get us out of here.” Someone had heard them and someone had come. Zuri wanted to cry but she knew she had to keep her wits about her.
The man called out and another uniformed man came into view.
Zuri bent and grabbed for Ava, she pulled the girl to her feet, but Ava’s legs wouldn’t hold. She dragged Ava under the armpits out into the air.
“What the hell?” the other man said as he walked in and began grabbing girls and carrying them out into the open. “What the hell is going on here?”
“You need backup, call for backup,” Zuri’s voice rasped out and she wasn’t sure they heard.
The men each carried two more girls out and Zuri tried to speak again but her voice choked. Her eyes began adjusting to the sun that was beginning to set. She looked at Ava and slapped at her face.
“You need to get up, you have to get out of here.” Zuri patted the girl’s face. Ava drifted awake then promptly closed her eyes again. Zuri pushed herself back up and forced herself back into the container. Sandy crawled out as Zuri grabbed for another young girl. She dragged her up and the girl walked tipsily out into into the fresh air, leaning heavily on Zuri for support.
“Hey,” the voice came from behind Zuri. She turned and saw three of the Ukrainian’s running toward them.
“Get your gun out,” Zuri screamed at the men next to her. “Get your gun out now, those men are wolf shifters.” She yelled at them but she could already feel it was too late. One of the men reached for his gun but the Ukrainians had already transformed.
With a snarl they barreled into the two uniformed men, fangs out, claws ready. Zuri screamed as she watched both men being mauled by the huge beasts.
Tears streaked down Zuri’s face. She looked in horror at the blood that pooled beneath the men, the blood that stained the mouths of the wolves. A look of abject terror transfixed the closest man’s face. The other man didn’t even have a face anymore.
“Help,” Zuri screamed. The man with the yellow teeth didn’t transform, he watched the action in his human form, expressing no emotion at the sight of the dead men in front of him. “Help,” Zuri screamed again as she looked into the glazed eyes of the man.
He walked to her swiftly and grabbed her by her shirt collar. He swung her to ground, to her knees and pulled out a gun.
He cocked the gun and aimed it at her head, “I should have done this a long time ago.”
Chapter Fifteen
Chaz felt the blackness take over him but he didn’t give into it all the way. The hot blood that ran through his veins denied the tranquilizer its full affect. He could hear men around him. He could feel his body being moved.
He willed his body to work again. He tested out his toes and soon his fingertips.
Words were being said nearby but he couldn’t understand them. At first he thought the confusion was in his head. It took him a moment to realize they were speaking in Ukrainian.
How long before the effect of the drug would wear off? His mind went back to that moment when he watched Zuri being taken from him. Was she even alive now?
The minutes ticked away and Chaz focused all his energy on moving his body.
Soon there were new sounds, different voices. He made a fist then released his hand. There was an order and a few shouts. Chaz knew he didn’t have time to let the drug wear off, he needed to move. Now.
He rolled over onto his back, his eyes opened wide. A face came into view over him. The man said something in Ukrainian and held out his hand to someone Chaz couldn’t see. A gun landed in the man’s palm. Chaz watched the man take aim.
Chaz pulled all his energy together. He felt his blood pulsing hot within him. With a flash of rage he lifted his foot and kicked the man hard. Chaz lifted and rolled himself up to standing, grabbing for the man’s throat, the gun clattered to the floor.
There were other shouts and Chaz pulled the man close to him just in time to use the gunman’s body as a shield. He pushed the body away from him, then shifted into full bear mode.
A bullet skimmed across his bear body but Chaz didn’t stop moving. He surged forward just as the men were beginning to shift themselves. He released his claws and felt them cut deep into their gray flesh. He threw the carcass of one body at the next man.
Transforming back to his human form in seconds he retrieved the gun and shot the other wolf between the eyes. The smell of blood lifted to his nose.
Chaz jogged out of the warehouse. He moved stealthily along the walls, waiting for more signs of danger.
He had no idea where they had taken Zuri or where the men were keeping the girls.
Chaz paused at edge of a new building. He needed backup.
The Magus men were just pulling in as Chaz came back out to where he’d parked his bike.
“Where is Zuri, you said she was with you?” Big Joe got off his bike. He jogged with Chaz back toward the pier.
“They took her, they knew we were coming. They tranquilized me and I have no idea where she’s being held.” Chaz felt a frenzy of panic squeeze in his gut.
“Hey,” Big Joe looked to Chaz, “we will find her.”
They ran back to warehouse, looking in containers, bins, rooms that had been sealed off and no longer used. They went out on the docks and asked questions, started searching into the mass of storage containers, shipping containers, and crates that were stacked everywhere.
Chaz lifted his no
se. He sniffed the air. The sea air was confusing his senses. He felt like he might smell Zuri but he wasn’t sure.
Big Joe popped open the top of a large wooden crate and peered in.
Then they heard it. Zuri’s scream.
Chaz didn’t wait. He followed the sound, running as fast as he could. There was another scream and he changed directions, sprinting through containers to find his way through.
When he came out to a hidden row of shipping containers he saw her.
One of the mobsters held a gun pointed to her head.
Chaz felt the moments pulsing away. He shifted to his bear body, the muscles in every part of him moving faster than he’d ever moved before. He didn’t give himself a moment to slow down or hold back. He trundled straight into the man holding the gun, pulling his body and ripping into him before he even had a chance to look his attacker in the face.
Big Joe shifted to a huge threatening grizzly and the other Magus were on the way. The two other mobsters were already in wolf form. Chaz lashed out savagely at one while he heard Big Joe rip into the other.
More mobsters rounded on them but Magus was in full form.
Chaz slashed at wolves coming in every direction, lifting bodies over his head and throwing them a full twenty feet away. He worked through each beast that foolishly tried to challenge him.
He watched the members of Magus annihilate the other men. They looked wild and brutal. Blood splattered the ground and howls of pain echoed out among the containers.
Chaz turned, shifting back to his human form as he went, and ran to Zuri. She sat crumpled on the pavement barely able to look around her.
“Zuri,” Chaz bent to her. He took her in his arms.
Zuri fell into him, her body exhausted. “Ava, she’s here. The others, we have to help them.” Zuri tried to get her strength back, to move, but Chaz settled her on the pavement.
“I’ll take care of them. Just stay, we need to take care of you too.” Chaz brushed a few curls away from her face. She was choking out sobs and nodded at him. Relief overwhelmed Chaz. Zuri was alive. Zuri was going to be ok.
Big Joe had transformed back to his human form as well. The Ukrainian’s were a thing of the past. The slain bodies of both man and beast dotted the ground. Only the Magus would be coming out of this one alive.
Big Joe helped carry girls and women out into the waning light. One of the other men called for emergency medical help and the entire group tended to the women. Chaz had never seen the members of Magus so gentle. They tended to wounds, soothed hysterical girls who were just beginning to come out of their drug induced states. Names of parents and friends were given, calls were being made.
“You came for me,” Zuri said as she pulled herself up.
The first of the medics were arriving and they swarmed over the girls. It seemed that few were very hurt but the drugs they’d been given were strong and some of the girls had been drugged multiple times a day for more than a week. The girls were all bony and thin, they looked malnourished, but Chaz thought that some good food and rest could rectify that pretty easily. It was the emotional and mental damage he was the most worried about.
The bodies had been cleaned up by a few of the Magus, and someone had sprayed down the concrete but there were still signs of blood and chaos everywhere.
“Of course I came for you, did you doubt that for a minute?” Chaz lifted Zuri to her feet.
“No.” She shook her head. “I want to go in the ambulance with Ava. Has anyone called her mother yet?”
“She was too out of it to give us the number, maybe you should call her now?” Chaz asked. Zuri nodded.
“I’ll meet you at the hospital?” Zuri asked looking up at him.
Chaz nodded, “I’ll just make sure everything is cleaned up here, all the girls taken care of. I’ll see you there soon.” He walked Zuri to the waiting ambulance. Another girl was in with Ava but the medics made room from Zuri as well.
She climbed up slowly into the back of the vehicle.
“Make sure she is checked out too,” Chaz said quietly to the medic at the back. The man nodded at him, he closed the doors before the van drove off, lights blazing, into the night.
Zuri petted Ava’s hand the entire ride. Ava looked fevered and pale and murmuring things under her breath.
“She’s going to be ok?” Zuri turned to the medic beside her. “She’ll be fine. It will take some time, there will probably be some withdrawal at some point but she’ll be just fine.”
Zuri hummed softly to the two girls. She left everything to the medic but she mothered them with love and soft bits of song that hummed out of her from her own childhood.
At the hospital she wasn’t allowed to go back with the girls so she sat in the waiting room trying to fight off the fatigue that threatened to overtake her. Her body and mind were so tired. She wasn’t even sure that it was the drug they’d given her anymore. It was a release of all the nights she’d spent sleeplessly thinking about Ava. The adrenaline that had been pulsing through her all day, the physical effort to defend herself and save the girl that now lay on a stretcher.
She watched as Sandy came in through the same doors. Other girls, young girls, all broken, all hurt, but all alive.
Ava’s mom came rushing in an hour and a half later with Zack.
“She’s ok? My baby’s ok?” Ava’s mother looked as wretched as Zuri felt.
Zuri nodded and opened her arms to both mother and son. “They said she’ll be just fine. She’ll be scared and weak but she wasn’t touched.”
“Oh thank god,” Ava’s mother burst into tears and this time Zuri was the one to comfort them away.
Mother and son were both allowed back to see the patient. Zuri, not being a family member, still wasn’t allowed. She sat down heavily in one of the chairs.
Her eyes were growing heavy and her shoulders sagged.
“Zuri?” Chaz’s voice was like a soothing balm washing over her. She looked up, relieved to see him, happy that she didn’t have to try to be so strong on her own anymore.
“I missed you.” She reached her hand for him and he took it, sitting down next to her.
Chaz pulled her into the crook of his arm. Zuri breathed him in, lavishing in his masculine smell.
They spent the rest of the night sleeping in the waiting room chairs wrapped up in each other. Just after five in the morning Ava’s mother came out and tapped Zuri on the shoulder.
“Is everything ok?” Zuri sat up straight.
Ava’s mom nodded with smile, “Ava is asking for you and the doctor says you can come.”
Zuri stood with Chaz at her side. The hospital had found Ava a room and they took the elevator up to a quiet floor.
Inside the room Ava looked fully awake. There were dark circles under eyes and stress on her face but she was relatively alert and looked much more like herself.
“Zuri!” Ava’s eyes filled up with tears.
Zuri walked around the bed and took Ava’s hand in her own.
“How are you feeling?” Zuri asked, holding the slender carefully.
“Not great, but…you came for me. You…” Ava brushed at the tears with her free hand.
“Hey, I thought of a good one for you,” Zuri said with a sly smile. “Ambrosia.”
Ava laughed a little hiccupping laugh. “The food here is far from ambrosia but it will suffice.”
“Nice,” Zuri laughed too, happy to see a smile on Ava’s young face.
“Mom says I got a letter from Oregon State.” Ava smiled at Zuri.
Zuri looked to Ava’s mom, “I couldn’t help myself. I was so distraught…I wanted to be closer to my little girl.”
“She opened it,” Zack added with a laugh.
“I got in with a full ride.” Ava sat up a little straighter, a light pink flushed her face.
Zuri felt the same choke of tears well up in her.
“Don’t cry,” Ava said, her concern for Zuri overriding her own situation.
Zuri felt Chaz’s firm hand on her shoulder and she placed hers over it.
“I’m just so happy for you.” Zuri leaned forward and kissed Ava on the cheek. “Ok, we should let you rest.” Zuri stood.
“Thank you,” Ava’s mom looked to Zuri and then to Chaz. “You saved both our lives today. I could never have survived if Ava…thank you.”
Chaz nodded, obviously a little awkward with the outflow of gratitude.
Zuri and Chaz walked down the quiet corridor and took the elevator back to the ground floor.
“Kevin?” Zuri turned to Chaz.
“He’s alive, he has a pretty bad bump on the head, the Ukrainian’s didn’t honor their end of the bargain I guess.”
“What will you do to him?” Zuri stopped walking.
Chaz looked at her and took a breath. “Nothing. I think living with what he did will be punishment enough.”
Zuri nodded slowly. He was right.
“Let’s go home,” Zuri said looking up at Chaz. She didn’t correct herself and say your home, or your house. She meant it. Home for her was wherever Chaz would be. They walked out of the hospital and into the budding sunrise.
“There is one more thing Zuri Hayes,” Chaz said her name with a tenderness that made her stop walking.
“What?” She looked up at him, thinking she’d missed something, forgotten something.
“I should preface this by saying this isn’t a question,” Chaz’s voice was calm and steady.
Zuri raised her eyebrows. “Ok?”
“You are going to marry me. I want our bond to be on paper, in front of our friends, in front of the world.”
Zuri sucked at her teeth.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” he asked.
“You didn’t ask me a question,” she said with false defensiveness. Chaz pushed his lips together in thought. “But if you had,” she continued, “I would definitely say yes.”
Epilogue
Zuri had considered asking Tiana, Big Joe, or even Zack to walk her down the aisle. But ultimately she’d decided to do it alone. She was meeting her eternal partner at the end of the aisle and that was perfect for her.
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